Sunday, March 29, 2009

For the uninitiated, Galaxy is the Intra-IIT Kanpur cultural festival. The event used to happen on a mega scale till about seven years back when the intense rivalry between hostels, resulting in ugly fights, became its nemesis. This year the event is being revived on quite a large scale. Even though the competitive spirit is not as strong as the folklore about the olden times tells us, still I would say that the spirit is quite high.

One particular competition that has the most stories attached to it and used to be the most competitive is the structures event. This year again the competition is back and looking at the work going on today for the structures I could feel the intense competition.

The Hall 5 team was building a mammoth Trojan Horse and took almost 6 - 7 hours to transport the structure from the hall to the auditorium grounds, a distance of less than a kilometre. This should give you an idea of the effort that people are putting in for the competition. The structure was shifted by human power involving only the students and nowhere any wheels were being used for the transport. I was reminded of the stories telling us of students who walked upside down even at the peril of their eyes becoming all red with blood. I also realised that this is the event that tests the true engineering skills and sheer human spirit.

Now the teams have till tomorrow evening to assemble their structures and put everything into place. A twist in the tale was brought by the late night rains. Lets see how teams protect their structures and if they were prepared for this eventuality. This is one competition that promises to go down to the wire.